Twenty-two year-old Alex Brown presented his debut album Pianist a couple of months ago with a big boost from his mentor of the last four years, Cuban-American sax giant Paquito D’Rivera. Sure enough, this record has the unmistakable flavor of Cuba that seemingly has D’Rivera fingerprints all over it. But D’Rivera took Brown under his wing because he saw a talent that can stand on his own two feet, and I’ll bet what D’River saw in Brown is what we all “see” (hear) on Pianist‘s lead off track, “Prologue.”
Brown wrote that tune, and it’s a lively, dynamic track that leverages his piano skills and those around him to make the whole greater than the sum of the parts. Beginning with a simple piano/bass two note pattern, Warren Wolf’s marimba introduces a repeating figure, a harmony of which is played by Brown. Eventually, the dueling repeating figures become dueling improvising, and the exchange continues right into the bridge as drummer Eric Doob paces the alternating tempo, a key part in making this song provide its impact in the right places.
“Prologue” holds up after several listens because Brown built it from the ground up, using those two notes as the starting point and made it into something with some complexity but retaining its simple roots. It’s a performance that’s easy to take in while given the players the space to stretch out to their abilities.
And D’Rivera? He sits out for this track. His protégé did plenty well enough on his own.
Pianist comes to us from Sunnyside Records.
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